Unsustainable Time Loop
by PPP SSC
Summary: Harold and Cody build a time machine that is supposed to be stable; for admiring the past and future. However, something goes wrong, and Harold accidentally changes the future. Several incidental pairings, rated T for adult themes and language.
1. HMCATM

Unsustainable Time Loop

The first rule of time travel is to never change anything in the past for fear that the slightest change could be catastrophic on the future. Cody knew this, as did Harold. As far as the latter was concerned, as a matter of fact, the rule was so important that it must be ingrained in the mind of his shorter companion every day they spent working on their model. Harold blueprinted every step, with many drafts, including several dozen crumpled blueprints thrown in the waste bin. Cody sweated and toiled, at building the machine, constantly debugging and checking on the formulas, looking for mistakes. Finally, their machine was completed. The two stood and admired their work.

"She's a beauty, isn't she?" Cody asked.

"She sure is," Harold replied.

The machine was large enough to contain two thin people, or a fat or large person, up to seven feet in height. It was designed with a safety lock that required a passkey to open. In case of passkey failure, there was always the auxiliary pass code: **HMCATM08120302. **It was easy enough for Cody and Harold to remember, but cryptic enough that the average passerby would not be able to crack it. In case of emergency, each agreed to hand the auxiliary pass code to one trusted individual.

Harold knew that he wanted to hand the pass code to LeShawna in case of emergency, but Cody was having trouble deciding. He was contending two people: his best friend, Noah, and his crush, Gwen. He weighed his options. He knew Noah would be more reliable to help, but would probably be less help assuming he arrived. It would be easier for him to remember the pass code, for sure. However, there was a good chance he would forget what it meant unless there was an imminent emergency—which Cody sincerely hoped there would not be—or someone reminding him, or he actually decided to write down what it meant. Then of course, there was the obvious issue of Gwen refusing to take the pass code, assuming perhaps that it was some sort of cryptic come-on.

Eventually Cody decided that Noah was a better choice overall, but reinstated several times the importance of remembering what the code meant, and insisted that Noah write it down. Noah refused several times.

"Cody, if I write down the pass code, it won't be confidential anymore. What if someone finds it?" Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They won't find it if you hide it," Cody answered.

Noah shrugged. "If I hide it, I'll just lose it. And then… what would be the point of writing it down?"

"It helps with memorization if you write it down," Cody responded, "Please, just write it down, _one time."_

He did. He scrawled in miniscule handwriting, "HMCATM08120302, for HMCATM".

"Trust me, Cody," Noah responded, "I will not forget what _this _code means."

Looking over what Noah had written, Cody decided that was probably true.

However, not all was well that day. Noah's notebook had slipped out of his bag, and had impacted the ground with such a soft force that it was virtually inaudible. The second rule of time travel is never give access to time travel to a person who is unfamiliar with rule number one. And Noah had, inadvertently, just broken it. Duncan walked by the place where he had dropped his notebook, and picked it up with devilish intent. First assuming it was some sort of diary, he was disappointed when all he found were writing exercises, unfinished short stories, and a random poem about perennial flowers sending apathetic people to an early grave. However, a certain page caught his attention. This was a page that was almost totally blank beyond the first line, which read, "HMCATM08120302 for HMCATM."

The initials did not mean much to Duncan, with the exception of the first letters, "HM". Duncan knew exactly what those initials stood for. And now that he knew that, he would stop at nothing to make his life a living hell. Courtney was right around the corner, and Duncan had to ask her a favor. "Hey, Courtney?" Duncan asked, "You're really smart. Do you think you could crack this code for me?"

"Of course, Duncan," Courtney replied sweetly. She then made the devilish look that Duncan loved so much. She looked at it, and then broke the six initials into three chunks of two letters each. "Well, what are your assumptions?" she asked.

"My assumption is that HM stands for Dorkface," Duncan responded.

"You mean, Harold McGrady?" Courtney asked, waiting for clarification.

"I do," Duncan responded.

"Well, then let's assume also that CA is one of the Total Drama contestants. I'll say immediately that it isn't me, and besides me there is only one contestant whose first initial is C—it can't be Chris because he would be CM, and assuming Chef Hatchet was going by Chef, he would still be CH. Therefore, we can conclude with relative certainty that if the initials do indeed stand for the name of a contestant, that contestant must be Cody," Courtney answered, "Who, if I recall correctly, has the surname Anderson."

"Whoa," Duncan said, impressed, "Does that mean TM also stands for one of us?"

"Doubtful," Courtney responded, "If it was only names, what would be the purpose of the code?"

"Then what _does _it stand for?" Duncan asked, getting impatient.

"It probably stands for whatever the code is needed for," Courtney said, and then slumped down when she could not figure it out at that moment. "Listen, Duncan, I'll think about it, and give you the answer as soon as I can."

"Oh, alright," Duncan said, blatantly disappointed, but willing to cooperate. After all, it was better to get it later than never.

Harold and Cody both looked eagerly at their machine. Harold turned to his shorter companion and asked, "Are you ready to experience _the future _that we will have?"

"Of course," Cody responded, "It can't be terrible!"

Harold swiped his passkey, and Cody did so as well. The internal computer read "This Operation Is Read Only; Enjoy Your Visit".

"Nice," Cody said, noting the computer's manners. The operation was read only, meaning that theoretically if all went as planned, no matter what Harold or Cody did in the past, it would not affect the future. This was moot for their planned visit to the future, but would be helpful later on. Setting the coordinates for twenty years into the future, Harold and Cody both prepared to be taken from their current time into what they were going to anticipate.


	2. A Utopian Future?

The traveling was a bumpy ride; Cody had had to try very hard not to vomit on the ride there, and made some very interesting faces, as Harold could attest. A large, forceful, and loud thump let the two know they had reached their destination.

"Now," Cody said, pointing to the computer, "This is my favorite part; the programmable tour."

"I don't recall putting a programmable tour on any of the blueprints…" Harold said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You didn't," Cody responded, "It was my idea. Because time traveling always takes you to the action, regardless of your location in the movies, I was thinking, _how does it know where you want to go? _So during the stages of finalization, I put in the programmable tour feature, where you can visit up to thirty individuals by entering their names and a little bit of identifiable data."

"So, this is one way that we can make sure to peek on the futures of all our old show friends, and ourselves," Harold responded. He then typed in twenty-four names, leaving the last six slots blank, with a little bit of identifiable data for each person.

The computer announced the first person they were going to visit, and Harold noted that that was not the order he arranged them in.

"Oh, yeah," Cody said, "I set it to auto-sort by first name so that it could filter out duplicates that may have been put there. It will also allow you to manually remove names of people who you already checked on."

"That's cool," Harold said, walking out of the machine and into a Spanish villa. It was not very crowded; there were only a few passersby, and it was close to dusk.

"Oh," Cody said, "Are we in Spain?"

"We are indeed," Harold responded, and then noticed a large manor. He ran up the stairs headed for the balcony.

"Wait, isn't that trespassing?" Cody asked.

Harold brushed him off, saying, "We're in read only mode. That means that they can't sense us, ergo, we don't exist, ergo, we aren't trespassing."

"I'm so glad you finally came around," a suave voice said.

"Yeah, I am too," responded a female.

Harold looked on, to see that Alejandro was giving Heather a backrub. Both were wearing wedding rings. Cody looked to Harold and commented, "Well, they _are _soul mates."

"Of course," Harold said, looking on angrily, "Those two get a happy ending. I'm sure the rest of us are not nearly as happy."

Harold stormed down the stairs and back into the machine, towards which Cody hurried in order to prevent becoming stranded in the time and place. Off they headed towards their next destination, and Harold, still holding a grudge, removed Heather's name from the list.

Immediately, they were transported to a bus terminal. Oddly, there seemed to be a huge amount of dissonance between the enthusiasm of the male and female employees. The females looked rather bored and apathetic, if not reminiscent of some of Cody's favorite people in disposition. The males, on the other hand, resembled Owen admiring a topless Justin and Izzy wrestling in the mud.

"What's going on?" Cody asked Harold. "I don't know any of these people. Didn't the machine say that Beth would be here?"

"Maybe it's faulty," Harold responded, "You didn't have another party debug the program."

Suddenly, a shockingly gorgeous woman walked into the room. She had auburn hair and a beautiful smile. She had lovely eyes. Her waist was significantly narrower than either of her other measurements, and it became clear to Cody that she must be a regular rider on the buses here; the employees must have been anticipating her arrival. Her height seemed a little bit shorter than average, but that didn't bother either of the travelers.

She walked up to the bus that was driven by a guy who reminded them somewhat of themselves, but was very obviously a different person. He asked, "Oh, how are you doing?"

In a high, nasally voice, she responded, "I'm doing pretty well."

Harold and Cody both gasped, and shouted "_That's Beth?"_

"Listen," he said to her, "You can ride my bus for free any day!"

"Oh, thank you, with my laser surgery and liposuction, my bills have gotten so high, you know…" she said.

"Anything to help a regular customer," the bus driver said, as he very unsubtly eyed Beth's rear.

"Okay, okay, I _stand corrected," _Harold said, "If this is the kind of attention _Beth _is getting, imagine how much the rest of us will!"

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Cody said, "I'll race you back to the machine!" Harold and Cody both ran towards it, and let it run.

They were transported to a restaurant. Harold examined the menu—from the side he could see, as it was read only he could not lift the menu—and noticed a theme. All of the items contained copious amounts of soy and vegetables, and not a single one contained meat or dairy. "It figures Bridgette would be eating here."

"Funny," Cody said, observing the booths, "I don't see her sitting at any of these tables."

"Maybe she went to the ladies' room," Harold pointed out, "You did program discretion, didn't you?"

"Of course," Cody said, "I wasn't going to… but the voice in my head made me."

A woman—brunette, with hard facial features, very unambiguously _not _Bridgette—stood up and shouted, "I want to speak to the owner! My food tastes disgusting!"

"Right away, madam," the waiter said, rushing off to the kitchen.

"What's happened here?" a sweet voice asked. It was Bridgette. Apparently, she owned the restaurant.

"My food tastes disgusting!" the woman scolded.

"I'm…I'm sorry to hear that," Bridgette stuttered.

The woman threw her food into Bridgette's face. Harold wanted to scold the customer, but was reminded by Cody that this was read only.

Bridgette walked away sad, only to run into Geoff. "Hey, Bridge, what's the matter?" he asked.

"I can't satisfy my customers," she replied.

"That's bogus," he responded, "You've won three Best Vegan Restaurant awards, have had four hundred positive critic reviews…"

"I can't satisfy _all _my customers," she said, sadly.

"Well, you can satisfy me," Geoff said, "And hey, your earnings have bought us a mansion."

"You're right… maybe I'm just trying too hard to be perfect," Bridgette said, pushing a hair out of her face.

Geoff and Bridgette kissed then. Satisfied with the way that Bridgette was now feeling, Harold and Cody wandered back into the time machine.

"Hey, I just realized," Cody said, "I guess we're going to be checking on my future next."

"Fingers crossed that nothing terrible happens," Harold responded.

They stepped out of the machine to see a normal, suburban house.

"I guess that must be my house," Cody said, "I'll go in."

"You can only go in if a door is open," Harold pointed out.

"I know," Cody said, "But look, the back door is open."

"Shut the door, hon," a monotonous voice said.

"Alright, alright!" the thirty-six-year-old Cody said, motioning to the back door. The teen travelers knew that they had to hurry to make it in before he closed the door.

They got inside the house to see Noah working diligently on a sufficiently advanced computer on a card table. The thirty-six-year-old Cody sat down at a computer directly across the table and began working diligently as well. The differences were that Noah clicked the mouse a lot less often, and Cody swore at his computer more.

"I guess Noah and I live together in the future," Cody said, shrugging.

"Or he was just visiting you," Harold noted.

"To work? That doesn't seem likely; and besides, I heard him telling me to close the door. That sounds like a house rule to me," Cody responded.

"Okay, so how about you were visiting him?" Harold continued, "It baffles me that you and he would be living together."

"Why? Lots of friends live together," Cody pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm sure you two are… friends… in the future," Harold said, trying to stifle some laughter.

"Hey, you want to read my manuscript?" Noah asked, "I'm sure it won't stand up to the first one, but it's bound to be better than my 'sophomore slump'."

"Oh, please!" the thirty-six-year-old Cody responded, "Stop berating yourself. The second book sold half a million copies."

"That doesn't mean it wasn't terrible," Noah said, shrugging.

"You know, my game only sold a hundred thousand copies," Cody responded, "Does that mean you think it's terrible?"

"Popularity does not equal quality," Noah replied.

The teenage Cody and Harold both stood awestruck at those selling quotas. "Okay, did we secretly set this to utopian future?" Cody asked.

"This is the future we will have," Harold said, "It's amazing!"

Cody smiled at the notion that he would be able to make such a popular game, and that Noah would be able to write a bestseller, and from the sounds of it, several bestsellers. After briefly looking back to make sure that he and Noah didn't do anything he would find objectionable—and having it come up negative—he followed Harold back into the time machine.


	3. Get Out of Jail Free Card

When Harold and Cody walked out of the machine again, they were in a courtroom. There were seats that spanned from wall to wall, and there was a judge. They turned to hear a sweet voice saying less-than-sweet things. "Your honor, what we have here is a framing case, plain and simple. This evidence was obviously forged, as the defendant could not have concocted such a menacing plan alone, and as is shown from these records, there was no accomplice. What this means is that the defendant is surely _not guilty. _The defense rests."

"Alright," said the judge, "We're going to take a recess." He and the jury left the room, and Harold and Cody wandered up closer so they could see. They saw Duncan with his hands cuffed sitting on the defendant's side. Right next to him was Courtney dressed in a women's suit, carrying a briefcase.

"Oh, don't you worry about a thing, Duncan," Courtney said, "I will not lose this case."

"Good," Duncan said, and then, with excessive winking, continued on, "Because I don't want to go to prison for something I didn't do."

Harold picked up on this instantly and clenched his fists hard. "He's so guilty! GOSH! Why is Courtney stooping to this level? I mean, I know she likes him but that's no excuse!" he yelled, which caused Cody to flinch and fall over backwards.

"M-maybe we should get back to the machine," Cody stuttered, and began to back away slowly, and then ran like hell. He knew Harold was about to explode.

"GOSH! Duncan gets to go free from _jail _when he committed a _crime! _This is no utopia, this is a _nightmare! An ungodly nightmare!" _Harold screamed.

"Maybe a visit with DJ will calm you down," Cody said, telling the machine to make its next stop, praying that Harold would feel better, and that the gentle giant would not be unfairly lashed at.

They walked out to see that they were in the middle of a giant field where several animals were prancing about. There may have been no humans for miles, with the exception of one: DJ. He was standing in the circle of animals and feeding them. There actually were humans just around the corner, who ran up to DJ.

"Now, please do not approach the animals," DJ said, petting one of them, "They do not take too kindly to strangers."

"He's a park ranger," Cody whispered to Harold.

"We don't have to whisper, Cody," Harold reminded, "This is a read only mission."

"Oh, yeah," Cody said, "But still, it's pretty cool."

"You know what this means?" Harold asked.

"What?" Cody responded.

"DJ _finally _got the animals to like him back."

After watching DJ petting the animals, and the other onlookers admiring his care and attention for them, Harold and Cody decided to leave.

"Did that make you feel better?" Cody asked, looking to Harold.

"Yeah, it did," Harold said, and then he looked to the screen. "Because we already saw _Duncan…"—_the tone of voice on Duncan's name, coupled with his exaggerated facial expression, showed Cody that he was still holding a grudge—"I guess the next person on the agenda is Eva."

When they walked out of the machine, they were in a gym. Most of the people in the gym were women; however, it did not resemble any sort of all-women's gym they had seen before. There was almost no emphasis on calisthenics, and there were tons of ridiculously heavy weights. Notably, one woman was lifting the 200 kg weight… in one arm. This was obviously Eva.

"Come on, gentlemen!" she called out, "You all lift like a bunch of little boys!"

"We're sorry, teacher," the only woman in the room who didn't look like she had taken hormones said.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" she asked, "I am not 'teacher.' You will refer to me as 'ma'am' at all times!"

"'Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" all of the other women said.

"And don't apologize! What are you, some kind of bro?"

"These role reverse words are getting ridiculous," Harold commented to Cody.

"Would _you _question her authority?" Cody asked.

"No, I don't think I would."

"Today, this lame gymnasium… tomorrow, _a drill sergeant position!"_ Eva said, and then grumbled something about the stupid chauvinistic military.

"Well, she's already training for it," Cody said, shrugging.

Harold was visibly distracted.

"Harold," Cody said, "Harold?"

"Women in combat…" Harold said dreamily, as though he were fantasizing about LeShawna in camouflage coloring. Cody assumed he probably was.

Cody laughed when they got back in the machine. "What's funny, Cody?"

"Oh, I just can't imagine _this guy_ having a good future," he said, pointing to the name that read Ezekiel.

"He's probably going to be in a slum, or dead," Harold laughed.

When the two walked out, into an apartment, and saw Ezekiel sitting on a couch, drinking beer, eating donuts, and watching hockey on TV. "Oh my god!" Cody yelled, "He _has an apartment!"_

"I wonder who he's mooching off," Harold said.

Ezekiel audibly moaned, and then said, "I wish I had a roommate; that way I wouldn't have to get my own back bacon, eh?"

"Wait… he lives alone?" Cody asked incredulously, "How does he pay his rent?"

"Who knows?" Harold asked.

"Oh, look at the time! I'm off to work!" Ezekiel said, picking up a mop and going three feet into the hall, where he started to clean the floor.

"Maybe he gets lower rates for working in the building?" Cody responded, "Because I can't imagine him being able to afford his rent, utilities bills, food, and _a television _with this job's low pay."

"Or maybe he's falling behind, and is going to be evicted. He is Ezekiel, after all," Harold noted.

Cody and Harold both shrugged, and then decided to check on Gwen. "Oh, boy, oh, boy!" Cody said, "I bet she's happy! I sure hope so…"

"Well, so far all of the competent people have had enviable futures, even the ones who suck, so, therefore…"

"When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me," Cody reminded.

"You have _seriously _spent too much time with Noah," Harold responded, narrowing his eyes.

"Maybe so, but if we're going to be living together in the future, I don't think that's going to change any time soon," Cody answered.

When they walked out of the machine, they were at a moderately small venue. Approximately one hundred people from the ages of 14 to 22, plus several dozen outside this range, mostly wearing black and dark blue and purple, were cheering, "Harshest Blow! Harshest Blow!"

"What's going on? Is Gwen in this crowd?" Cody asked.

"I don't think she's in the crowd," Harold said, pointing to the stage.

Gwen was standing on it, holding a bass guitar. Across the stage from her was Trent, playing the regular guitar. A guy they didn't recognize was drumming, and a girl they didn't recognize was holding the microphone.

"This song was written by our band's top lyricist, Gwendolyn Gravestone, on the bass," she said, "And our band's top composer, The Other Trent on the guitar." As she said this, Gwen and Trent both showed off their riffing skills.

Cody wove through the crowd and stood up next to the stage. "Cody, Cody?" Harold asked, curious what had become of his companion.

"I LOVE YOU, GWENDOLYN GRAVESTONE! MARRY ME!" he shouted, and then he threw his underwear at the stage.

Harold wove through the crowd too, and then noticed that Cody had done that, and asked, "CODY! What are you doing?"

"I'd never get away with being Gwen's groupie if she could see me! But I can now, because it's in read only mode!"

"Okay, that's it," Harold said, "We're leaving." He started dragging Cody away by his ear.

"Hey, no fair!" Cody said, "We were just getting to the good part of the song."

"No way, horn-dog," Harold said.

"But… I left my underwear there."

"Then go get it," Harold demanded, "But don't get distracted."

Cody was annoyed that Harold was being so rude to him, but then realized that there was a reason for it: the longer he lingered with Gwen, the longer it would take for Harold to see his own future. So, in a favor for a friend, Cody decided to humor Harold and leave after quickly retrieving his underwear.

When they stepped out of the machine once again, they were at some sort of award ceremony. "Professor Harold McGrady, who discovered the strain and the cure for the mongoose flu, deserves recognition from our panel tonight."

"Thank you," the thirty-six-year-old Harold responded, "For this esteemed award, I would like to thank LeShawna, my beloved wife, for supporting me working late all those nights."

"It's all right, sweetie," LeShawna said, "I know that sometimes you can't be home, but you shouldn't worry about me. After all, there is the unofficial national Justin rule."

"And I'm sure that has helped you through several nights," the thirty-six-year-old Harold answered.

The sixteen-year-old Harold turned to Cody and asked what the unofficial national Justin rule was.

"Hell if I know," Cody responded, shrugging, "It probably hasn't even been invented yet." They were about to walk away and Cody nudged Harold and said, "Not too shabby, right?"

"Yeah," Harold responded, "That was a good one." They returned to the machine, with the knowledge that soon, they might be able to find out what the unofficial national Justin rule was.

Author's Note: The following chapter will be the last one to focus on the good future, and will show a return to the main conflict.


	4. Sabotaged!

Author's Note: Response to Violet Rose's review: I would never do that to Cody; not in the good future, anyway. (Ack, spoilers!)

Harold looked at the next name in line, and saw that it was Izzy. This made Harold shrug, and then say, "Well, maybe we'll be able to find out what the unofficial national Justin rule is soon." The two were soon transported to a theme park.

There were dozens of roller coasters that spanned huge masses of land. In the midst of it all were a couple of carousels, a tilt-o-whirl, a Ferris wheel, three funhouses, and a bumper cars building. "This place is huge!" Harold said, "Want to bet Izzy's riding one of the roller coasters?"

"I don't know," Cody responded, looking towards his tall companion, and then to the sign that showed the name of the location. It was called Bliss or Blunder: The Most Spontaneous Place on Earth. "I was thinking more along the lines of, she invented the place."

They saw Izzy, dressed in white and red, with a top hat and a cane, rattling at auctioneering speeds, "Step right up and see the greatest show in the universe! The Giant! And I've even set up a kissing booth for the Giant! This is a great deal! Everyone prefers the Giant to the average man!"

"Please, Izzy," a bubbly tenor responded, "No one prefers the Giant to the average man, except you."

"Well, forgive me for trying to play you up," she said, although she didn't sound sarcastic _or _remorseful when she said it.

"That's alright," he responded.

Harold and Cody turned around the corner to see that Izzy was talking to Owen. "Owen is a freak at the carnival?" Cody asked Harold.

"Who's the Giant, Owen?" Izzy asked, stroking his chin.

"Hehe!" Owen laughed, "I'm the Giant!"

"Who wants to see what the Giant is willing to eat?" Izzy asked. A random bystander raised her hand.

She tossed a package of cookies at him. "Oh boy!" he shouted, and then ate the whole thing, package and all. Izzy looked briefly concerned, but then started laughing.

"Haha! That's my Giant!" she said. "And remember… kissing the Giant is as far as anyone but me goes!" She then became clingy and attached herself to Owen's head.

"What about Justin?" Owen asked.

"Justin doesn't count, and everyone knows that," Izzy responded, "Personally, I don't get it, but… it's in fashion, so whatever."

Cody and Harold exchanged meaningful looks.

"Maybe we should go see what Justin is up to," Harold told Cody.

"Maybe…" Cody responded, "After all, he seems to be topical."

The two walked back into the machine, and when they came out, they were in a plain white condo, with plain, white furniture, except for two glaring exceptions. They were both giant trophies, approximately the height and width of Cody.

"Sexiest man on earth… sexiest man in the Solar System…" Harold read the two awards. Cody turned around and noticed that there were two more.

"Sexiest man in the galaxy… sexiest man in the universe…" Cody continued, "How do people judge these things?"

"Hey, look," Harold said, pointing to a framed article, titled, _Too Hot For Monogamy. _"It says here that because Justin is so amazingly, incredibly, hot, several thousand couples have already put him as their exception."

Cody said, "Well, of course, the ladies can't resist him!"

"…On both sides," Harold continued.

"Really?" Cody asked, "Justin's got the life, hasn't he?"

"And boy, does he milk it with his former teammates from Total Drama," Harold continued, "Several of them have testified to using the exception."

"I'm not one of them, am I?" Cody asked, slightly terrified.

"…No," Harold responded, "But Gwen is."

"Oh…" Cody said, whining.

"And LeShawna," Harold moaned, and then rattled off, "And Lindsay, Beth, Owen, and Heather."

"Of course," Cody said.

"And Trent," Harold added for completion.

Cody was confused. He wondered whether he should start making fun of Trent. There were more pressing matters, however, as there were still five of their old pals—the term is used quite loosely for the penultimate one, on Cody's side—so they headed back to the machine.

When once again they emerged, they were in the kitchen of a different house. There were two random gentlemen whom neither teen recognized, but they were both wearing wedding rings. They looked very similar to one another in personality, though not in phenotype or build—one was blond, one was redheaded; one was ridiculously buff, the other one was squat.

"Katie, honey, where's the pickle jar?" the blond one asked, as he stared into the refrigerator.

"I don't know, Jerry, maybe Sadie's seen it?" Katie responded, making five sandwiches.

"Sadie, dear, have you seen the pickle jar?" the redhead asked, looking from the dining room table to his apparent wife.

"I haven't seen it, Barry!" she responded.

"What the!" Harold said, in abject disbelief, "Jerry and Barry? And they're like Katie and Sadie only guys. And they _married _Katie and Sadie!"

"Well, you can't blame them," Cody said, "Once you've found your soul mate, you'll know." He shrugged.

Harold muttered under his breath, "Unless you're a pervert constantly looking at girls way out of his league."

"I heard that, you know!" Cody responded, offended.

"Mommy!" a child yelled.

"Oh, look, it's Katie Junior!" Sadie said with love. She was pale rather than dark, and had red hair rather than blond.

"It would appear that Sadie has named her daughter after Katie," Harold pointed out, "This house is baffling to even my brilliant, brilliant mind."

"Who wants sandwiches?" Katie said sweetly.

Every other person in the room—excepting Harold and Cody—cheered enthusiastically, and loudly. The two looked at each other and ran as fast as they could into the machine.

"Okay, my mind is confused," Harold said, "Oh, good, Lindsay, hopefully nothing's weird about her house."

They ended up in another, bigger house, this time in the living room. "Go, go, Tyler! Get the ball!" Lindsay shouted at the TV.

"Oh, and Tyler won the game again!" a commentator from the TV shouted as a crowd cheered. Lindsay squealed.

"Tyler… won?" Harold asked incredulously.

"I heard it too," Cody responded. "Maybe it's a different Tyler, and Lindsay's just confused."

Harold and Cody walked closer to the TV, and saw that, very unambiguously, it _was _the Tyler they knew. They would know those cheekbones anywhere.

"Can we have an exclusive interview with you?" a woman asked, putting a microphone up to his face.

"Uh, sure," he said.

"Do you like being such a big star that you can have a gorgeous bombshell trophy wife?" the woman asked.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lindsay is a gorgeous bombshell, I'll give you that," Tyler said, "But she's no trophy wife." He grinned at the camera. "I love you, Lindsay!"

"I love you too!" Lindsay called back at the TV.

"She's my high school sweetheart. She loved me when I was a clumsy wreck," he continued to the microphone, "She's the one who motivated me to become so good in the first place."

"What a sweet word from such a big star," the woman said, and then the station went to commercial.

"Aww," Cody said, "They're still together…"

"Good to know," Harold responded. Cody shuddered in anticipation.

"I'm a little freaked out to continue, you know," he said.

"It's okay, I'll protect you from the evil forces of the _read only operation," _Harold said sarcastically.

Cody pushed his fingers together, and then said, "Well, I guess you're right."

The two of them braced themselves to see the final person on their list. They were put into a house that they could see Noah and Cody's house from, and they saw a small, unusually spineless man standing in the living room, vacuuming the floor.

"Oh, pookie!" a tall woman said from the doorway, walking in to see the man. Cody recoiled at the sight; however, Harold insisted that he was worrying over nothing.

"Hey, sweetheart!" the man said, "You're my dream woman!"

"And you're my dream man," she said, although she was obviously unconvinced. She took out some binoculars and started spying on the house across the street.

Cody shuddered again, and Harold told him to relax, as the blinds on the house across the street were obviously closed.

"I can't believe how long it took me to found you, Sierra," the man said.

"I know what you mean," Sierra responded, "It took me years to find my dream man, but then he turned me down… I mean, not you, the earlier man who I _thought _was my dream man."

Cody said, "Okay, that's it, we're out of here."

Harold responded, "But Cody, there's still so much to see!"

"No," Cody said, "It's getting late; we should get back."

"We're _time traveling. _We can go back to _any _time twenty years ago," Harold pointed out.

Cody looked at Harold with puppy dog eyes and said, "Can we _please _go?"

"Yes," Harold said, "We can go."

The two set the coordinates back for their normal time, and the return trip was not half as bumpy as the first trip.

Cody and Harold put the machine in lockdown, and then left the room, but all was not going to go well, because the third rule of time travel is to never, ever, allow events to take place during the time you are away from your own, and, by not changing the specificity of the directions to the hour, they failed in doing so.

During the time they were gone, Courtney had discovered the time machine, and had used this information to figure out that "TM" stood for "time machine." Giving this information to Duncan allowed him to penetrate the machine.

He walked into the room, where he saw the machine, and there was a control box, that read "insert passkey". He pressed _EMERGENCY AUXILLIARY _and it commanded him, in a recorded voice, "please insert pass code." He typed, not without looking at the paper, **HMCATM08120302 **into the machine. This allowed it to open. He then went inside, and saw the main control panel. As the security measures had already been put on the outside, there was nothing inside to prevent him from changing the setting.

First, he changed it from "Read Only" to "Standard". It then prompted him, "Would you like to display the setting on the inside of the machine?" There were three options: **YES, NO, **and **EDIT.**

Devilishly, he chose **EDIT. **He then typed **Read Only **into the prompt box, which it did not accept, due to being the exact name of another setting. However, he had another plan. He typed **ReadOnly **into the machine, and it accepted it this time.

He then left the machine behind, laughing, sure that he had managed to prank Harold good this time.


	5. Oh, Crap!

As would suit a person aware of the risks that could happen at any time, Noah periodically checked his inventory for missing items. Unfortunately, sometimes there is an extended period of time between checks, which can be problematic should something happen during those times.

Noah had not checked his belongings in quite a while, due to becoming distracted by several things. It took him so long to check that as he finally got around to doing so, he looked more carefully and more alertly than he would have otherwise. He mucked around in his bag, and found that all things were accounted for—except for the one thing he really didn't want to lose.

"Wait, where's my notebook?" he asked. A realization hit him hard. "Oh crap!" he shouted. He dropped his bag, and ran as fast as his scrawny out-of-shape legs could.

Meanwhile, Harold and Cody decided to mess around. Harold wanted to go into the past, and decided that Cody could find it an enticing history lesson as well. "So, where are we going?" Cody asked.

"We're going to Canada in the eighteenth century!" he shouted excitedly. "I happened to have the name of an individual that we can track down."

Noah was running hard, huffing and puffing, trying with all his might not to collapse, as he said to himself, "Shortsighted Cody; write it down, he said; it helps with memorization, he said." Noah tried to shift the blame to Cody, because his superego was continually telling him that this was his fault; and a cynic's superego is a beast that cannot be quelled.

Harold and Cody were not put off by the way the words **ReadOnly **were spaced, as Harold was barely paying attention, and Cody did not remember whether there was a space there or not. They took the machine to the past.

This time machine, to assume its post, and to make sure the present is tangible when one exits a trip, has an entrance base that always stays in the current time. The exit machine is a warping device that sometimes combines or splices with the entrance machine. Only the entrance machine is equipped with security measures. This is why the machine was still around when Noah finally arrived.

He noticed something was amiss immediately, as he checked the security light, and saw that it was an off-putting color. It was red, and red usually means "all is not well." He yelled, "Oh, crap," again. He quickly typed in the pass code **HMCATM08120302—**completely from memory—and let himself in.

He looked at the display screen, which read "This Operation Is ReadOnly; Enjoy Your Visit." Noah was suspicious because one of the spaces was conspicuously missing, and even if Cody had made a typo, Harold would never let him get away with it. So again, he yelled, "Oh, crap." He tentatively pressed the **EDIT **button.

Afterwards, it prompted him with a request. "This message has already been edited. Would you like to restore its original settings?" Noah picked **YES. **The message now read, "This Operation Is Standard; Enjoy Your Visit."

Noah became _very _concerned at this moment, and moved from simply yelling to _screaming, "Oh, crap!"_

Frantically, he searched for something, _anything _that could avert an oncoming crisis. He saw a lever in the corner of the machine marked **EMERGENCY ABORT.** It took all his arm-strength and a rush of adrenaline just to pull it, but despite all this his efforts were in vain.

"Emergency Abort could not be performed, because the trip has already reached completion."

Noah had to restrain himself from moving up the profanity ladder three to four steps, when he screamed again, "OH CRAAAAAAP!"

In the past, Harold and Cody were standing amongst a group of colonists, who were all staring at them.

Cody looked at Harold and said, "They're all staring at us."

"They can't be staring at us," Harold responded. "This operation is read only."

One of the ladies in the crowd audibly gasped. A gentleman said to who was presumably a friend of his, "They just said something."

"What are you?" one man asked.

"Uh…" Cody said, looking at Harold, "Are you sure they aren't staring at us?"

"How could they?"

On the other end, Noah's despair waned _slightly, _when he noticed a terminal labeled **Emergency Communications System**. He pressed the button that read **CONTACT EXIT POD. **He typed in this message:

"Abort. You are not in read only mode. Get out of there! –Noah."

He pressed **SEND. **He hoped—bleakly, but still—that Cody and Harold would be able to receive the message in time.

An alarming beep was heard on the other end, causing the crowd to gasp louder.

"What was that?" Cody asked.

"Oh, it's just a noise the time machine makes sometimes," Harold said.

Several random colonists gave each other meaningful looks. "Like, what times?" Cody asked.

"Oh, just communications, I suppose."

"Communications?" Cody asked, "Does that mean one of our trustees is trying to contact us?" He moved towards the time machine. He read the message.

"It's from Noah!" Cody said, alarmed, "He's telling us that we aren't in read only mode…" And then, he said, with an expression of utter shock on his face, "Oh, crap."

"We have to get out of here," Harold said, and immediately grabbed Cody, and they quickly piled back into the machine.

They were transported back, and met Noah on the other end. "How's the state of affairs in the present?" Cody asked.

"In the present… there are a couple of off details here and there. Not something you'd notice unless you really cared like me," Noah said. "I'm so stupid," he berated himself, "Getting so distracted I couldn't check my bag and prevent this."

"It's _not _your fault," Cody insisted. "And hey, if only a couple of details are off, we're home free, right?"

The fourth rule of time travel is to never assume stability will stay. Harold knew this, and so he told Cody, "We have to check on our futures."

"Do we really?" Cody asked.

"Hey," Noah responded, "I think that's a good idea. You never know how much you really screwed up until you find something to regret."

"Come on, Cody," Harold said, "We must see them." Harold and Cody both headed for the future.

Noah walked away, angry, not at either of the distracted time travelers, but at himself, and, more pressingly, at the person who stole his notebook. He became very alert, looking for anything that _resembled _his notebook, until he finally found it. It was behind Duncan, who was currently laughing his head off.

Noah interrogated, on his toes, trying to reach Duncan's height, "Did you steal my notebook?"

Duncan brushed him off, and asked rudely, "What's it to you?"

Noah picked up the notebook, and hit Duncan over the head with it. Duncan said, "Ow!"

"That's for stealing my notebook."

He then kicked Duncan in the shin. "Ow! What was that for, twerp?" he asked.

"_That _was for dooming us all."

Duncan was getting ready to pummel Noah. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you're about to get a beating."

"It won't change anything," Noah said, "Fine, beat me up, but that doesn't change the fact that you've doomed us all."

"How could I have doomed us all?" Duncan asked.

"You really _are _an idiot," Noah said, and then walked away, extremely pissed off at Duncan.

Duncan was going to chase after him, but was too distracted by the implications of the accusation he had just been given.


	6. A Dystopian Future

Cody and Harold did not set the machine to **Read Only, **as the fifth rule of time travel is to always, always give yourself a fair chance to fix the things you screwed up if you blatantly ignored—accidentally or otherwise—rule number one. When they arrived at their destination, twenty years into the future, the world had changed. The sky was dark and smoggy, and it was lit red with fire. The thirty-six-year-old Cody walked right up to the traveling teens, and then said, "Oh, thank god you're here! So much has changed during the time between yours and mine, and all of it is disastrous!"

"Where's my little Cody-wody?" Sierra asked, "I need to… I need to… eat… food."

"You married Sierra? WHY?" young Cody asked.

"It was a shotgun wedding; I had no choice, after I gave her a pity date… why did I decide to give her a pity date?" he mentioned regretfully, "And now, she has dementia."

"Already? But she's only thirty-six!" Harold responded incredulously.

"Yeah, well, terrible things have happened to all of us…"

"All of us?" young Cody asked incredulously.

"Here, I'll show you around," older Cody said, and then he led the two teens, who were now scared out of their minds, to an alley.

"It's all I can afford," a suave, recognizable voice said, "Please, you must understand."

"It's not good enough," a woman said, "You promised me you'd have 5,000 dollars."

"5,000 dollars is too expensive for me," he replied back.

Older Cody looked to the teens, and said, "Alejandro lost his flair for picking up women; now he's reduced to buying hookers, only some of which he can even afford…"

Young Cody bit his fingernails. Older Cody continued, "A similar fate befell Heather. She's now working at this strip club for minimum wage."

"That isn't so bad," Harold said, "After all, Heather probably loves being admired."

"You haven't seen the clientele," older Cody said. Just at that moment, forty hairy, balding, ugly guys with moles walked out of the place.

"You guys didn't even tip me!" Heather complained, and then one of them spanked her.

"But even that's not as hard as _Justin _fell," older Cody noted, "Poor guy."

"Where is he?" Harold asked.

Older Cody pointed to a guy who looked _vaguely _like Justin but overall less attractive. "Come on, I used to model!" Two women looked at each other and passed him by. "It's only 500 dollars!" he insisted.

"Not good enough," one of the women said.

"Fifty dollars, then? I'll take credit!" he said.

"I wouldn't go for it even if it was _free," _one of the women said coldly.

"Five dollars! That's my final offer," he continued, but as the women continued to walk away, he shouted, "I lied! One dollar! Less than a dollar! I'll… I'll…I'll pay _you _5,000 dollars."

Justin began to cry when no one took any of his offers. "What about Owen?" Harold asked, "Surely he's still into Justin enough to… or did Izzy prevent him from seeing Justin?"

"Izzy doesn't have that power," older Cody said, "She was committed to a mental hospital five years ago for burning down a bakery."

"Okay, then what's stopping Owen?" Harold asked curiously.

"_That _is what is stopping Owen…" older Cody said, pointing to a sign that read **Horrid Creatures Show.**

An unfamiliar man walked up to Owen, and fed him peanuts without taking them out of the shell. He then whipped at Owen. "Ow!" Owen shouted.

"Down beast, down!" the unfamiliar man said, "No one likes a noisy Giant."

"Owen and Izzy had a plan to start a carnival together, but after Izzy was committed, this guy decided to pick up Owen as part of _his _personal freak show," older Cody said with a tone of utter resentment.

Older Cody took the teens to a cemetery. He said to young Cody, "There is a subject here that may shock you."

"As opposed to everything else so far," young Cody asked.

"No," older Cody responded, "Especially."

Harold looked over to see Eva standing in the cemetery, near a grave. She was crying, and her frame was notably less healthy than it had been. Her hardened muscles seemed to have somewhat atrophied, and there was no fire in her eyes any longer.

"Why are you crying, Eva?" young Cody asked.

"Of course you don't know," Eva responded, "You're too far from the past to have seen the events that transpired here ten years ago."

"What?" young Cody asked in fear, "What happened ten years ago?"

"Read the gravestone," Eva said, tears running down her face.

Young Cody turned white when he looked at the grave, and realized that it had Noah's name on it. "Noah… died?"

"Yeah," Eva responded, "Suicide. Left a note."

"You… found it," he said, hoping that she would have it with her.

She pulled it out of her pocket. It was frayed, and soaked with tears, but Cody could still make out most of what it said. It read:

_Dear World,_

_It's not you; it's me._

_My career is going nowhere. My love life is down the crapper. There's nothing to blame for either of those things but myself._

_Sometimes I wish I was an idiot; then I wouldn't have to deal with this._

_Don't try to stop me. I've thought this through, long and hard._

_Goodbye,_

_Noah_

_PS SIERRA IS A SUCKY WHORE!_

"That's… not… good…" young Cody said, examining the letter.

"No," older Cody responded, "There were definitely times I regretted giving Sierra a pity date, but none more than this letter."

"Yeah, Cody, gosh, way to not be living with Noah!" Harold scolded.

Young Cody stood up on the tips of his toes, trying to get as close to Harold's height as possible. "Need I remind you that the only reason we're in this predicament in the _first place _is because _you _wanted to go to the past to learn _history!"_

"Well, don't blame me for everything, alright?" Harold responded, pissed off.

Their fight was distracted when they noticed Eva crying. "After Noah died, I felt so depressed. The only person who kept me motivated was Izzy. I haven't worked out since she got committed."

There was a moment of silence. Older Cody broke the silence by saying, "You know, Harold regrets this just as much as I do."

"Oh, do I?" Harold asked, as older Cody led the way to an abandoned laboratory. On the way there, they ran into DJ—or rather, they saw him through a window.

He was sucking his thumb, and in the fetal position. "Don't let evil mongoose in. Don't let evil mongoose in. Don't let evil mongoose in."

"What evil mongoose?" Harold asked.

"It's a mongoose with a strange disease," older Cody said, "None of us know what the disease is, so it might be fatal."

Harold's eyes lit up, and he said, "The mongoose flu? Well in my future… before… this happened, I discovered the strain and cure for that disease!"

Older Cody laughed in a creepy way, "That's rich," he said, "You expect me to believe that you're doing anything but fruitless labor to piss off your wife?"

"Wait, what?" Harold asked concernedly. He looked into the window of the abandoned laboratory, which turned out not to be abandoned at all. Thirty-six-year-old Harold, who appeared to not have shaved, bathed, slept, or changed his clothes in weeks, was working diligently at the test tubes.

"Oh, oh, it's all hopeless!" he said, and then he practically collapsed onto the table, "I'll _never _be able to face LeShawna at this rate."

"I won't give you that option," LeShawna said, as she appeared in the room. She was really mad, "Why can't you just admit that you're a failure?"

"Because, I really think I'm onto something this time!" he insisted.

"Yeah," LeShawna responded, "I'm getting a divorce."

"No, please, I'm begging you!" the older Harold said, on his knees, and crying.

"Sorry, but… we haven't been together for months," LeShawna said, "No research is worth that."

"LESHAAAAAWNAAAAAAA," he yelled, and then fell to the floor, and cried some more.

"Why is he having such a hard time figuring it out?" young Harold asked.

"_You're _having a hard time figuring it out for two reasons; one is that you don't want to upset LeShawna," older Cody began.

Young Cody commented, "I suppose there's no unofficial national Justin rule in this future."

Older Cody continued, "No. And the other reason is because you _know _you changed the past."

"What?" young Harold asked, "You mean that I can't find the mongoose flu cure because…"

"You're afraid you'll make another dire mistake," older Cody finished, "Yes exactly."

"This place is absolutely horrible…" young Cody commented. "And we've only checked on half of us."

"The worst part is…" older Cody continued, "This is the good part of town."

Harold and Cody braced themselves for the horrors that were to come next.


	7. The Worse Side of Town

"That…that can't be right," young Harold proclaimed.

"But it is," older Cody said, "This was uptown—this is where the people who can afford standard housing live. There's not a very high crime rate, unless you count the rampant prostitution. Follow me."

He led them into a dank alley, where there were rats and bats roaming around. They found a cardboard box. Inside the cardboard box, Ezekiel was sleeping. He was wearing torn and tattered clothes, and was sitting next to an empty cup.

He was alerted to their presence when they stepped on his hand. "Ow! Watch where you're going, eh?"

"Sorry," young Cody said, and then walked by.

"Can you spare a guy some change?" he asked.

Young Cody and Harold looked at each other. Older Cody shook his head. "He never uses the change to buy anything useful. He always spends it on beer."

"I do no such thing," Ezekiel denied unconvincingly.

"But even the people who can afford housing in this part of town are ashamed," older Cody responded, as he turned to a slum, where Katie and Sadie were both sitting on the stoop. Neither of them looked happy, and they were both covered in mud.

"What happened to you two?" asked Harold.

"Oh, it… was horrible," Katie said.

"This really hot guy decided to give us a ride," Sadie said, "But it turns out he had other plans."

"He took _all _of our money, and then he ditched us here!" Katie continued.

"That's… that's terrible!" young Cody said, aghast. "I can't imagine it getting much worse."

Older Cody got a tear of remembrance and regret in his eye as he said, "Never say that, or else it will." He motioned to a woman, who was apparently Gwen.

"Dude? Do you have any meth?" she asked, supremely cadaverous-looking. She was always pale and thin, but this was ridiculous.

Harold said, "Methamphetamine kills brain cells."

"You think I don't know that!" Gwen shouted at him. "I only got addicted because I had no choice."

"What do you mean you had no choice?" young Cody asked tentatively.

"It was not up to me to decide," Gwen said, "Duncan sold me… said it… said it was something else."

"Oh…" young Cody said, clenching his fists, and getting extremely angry. "And you believed him."

"I thought… I thought he was my friend," she said, and then she collapsed.

"Where is Duncan?" young Cody asked, angry. "I'd like to beat him up for what he did to you!"

"Believe me," older Cody responded, "I tried. He got arrested for assault. Seven years."

"Oh, yeah! Karma!" Harold cheered. Both young and older Cody glared at him angrily.

"Arrested?" young Cody asked, "On whose watch?"

"Courtney's," older Cody answered.

"Really?" Harold asked, "Did I screw up the future so much Courtney lost a court battle?"

"No," older Cody responded darkly, "She won alright."

"She was…prosecutor…" Gwen said.

"No, no, no," young Cody said, "Save your strength, dear."

Harold said, "So, let me get this straight… Courtney is the reason Duncan _did _get convicted? Call me crazy, but I think that's _worse _than Courtney losing the battle."

"She… can't stand… to look at him… Neither… Neither of us can," Gwen said, with an obvious overtone of hatred in her voice.

"Gwen, I'm serious," young Cody said, "Save your strength. I can't let you die too."

Both older and young Cody started weeping in unison.

Harold said, "Guys, enough of your mourning/worrying about what's going to happen next! We still haven't seen what happened to Lindsay and Tyler, or what happened to Trent, or what happened to Beth…"

Older Cody said, "You're right. This is where Beth is living."

The slum was in bad shape; and there were not two or three cats, but in fact _thirty,_ sitting near the doorway. Harold tentatively knocked on the door. "Beth?" he asked.

In a raspy voice, a woman from inside the building answered, "Go away!"

"It's me, Harold," Harold responded, "From the past."

"You screwed up," Beth said, "I don't ever want to look at you again. Or Cody."

"But Beth, you…" Harold continued.

"No," she said stopping him, "I'm happy here. With all my cats to keep me company."

"Beth," Harold said, and slapped her across the face, "This is insane! You are _not _a crazy cat lady."

"I can be whatever I want to be," she said, and then kicked Harold out.

Older Cody apologized, "Sorry you had to see that, Harold. The good news is that Lindsay and Tyler don't have nearly that many cats."

"Oh, that's good," Harold said.

As they approached the place where Lindsay and Tyler were living, older Cody added the ever important qualifier, "The bad news is…"

Lindsay and Tyler both looked extremely exhausted. Lindsay at least looked as though she hadn't slept in years. Ten children were crowding around Lindsay.

"Ten children?" young Cody asked incredulously.

"It's not… impossible," older Cody said.

"Oh, yeah," young Cody said, which led to both having another moment of silence, until Harold broke it.

"Why are you living here? I thought you guys were both wealthy…" Harold said.

"We were," Tyler said, "But trust funds and inheritance will only go so far. And because my job is so horrible, we can't even make ends meet."

"What's your job?" Harold asked.

"I pick up trash," Tyler said, "It's the only thing my sports records qualified me to do."

"Oh, god," Harold said, "I… I'm so sorry!"

"It's not your fault," Tyler said.

"Yes it is," Harold, young Cody, and older Cody all said in unison.

"I fail to see how, but thank you for your condolences anyway," Tyler said.

Older Cody braced the teens for another horrible sight. What they saw was more horrible than either could ever have imagined. What they saw was Bridgette, wiping blood off of a knife.

"Bridgette," Harold said, "You became a murderer!"

Startled by the initial accusation, she replied, "Oh, nothing with such a malicious intent!" Then, sadly, she added, "But due to how often I have to kill… I might as well have."

"What are you?" young Cody asked.

"I'm a vigilante," Bridgette responded, "I'm not proud of it, but it's what I have to do."

"Why does it have to be you?" Harold asked.

"All the aggressive people became criminals… or strippers…or just in general seedy, except Eva. This used to be her job, before Noah d…" Bridgette began, but Harold put his hand over her mouth.

"_Please _don't remind Cody and Cody," Harold insisted, "For all of our sakes."

"She insisted I take her place," Bridgette continued, "After a loss like… ahem… after such an event, I felt like I owed it to her to continue."

"What happened to Geoff?" young Cody asked.

"He left me," Bridgette said sadly, "He said he didn't know who I was anymore."

"That's a shame," Harold said, "A darn shame."

"Is he still in town?" young Cody asked.

"He is, but he's always in the bar binge-drinking," Bridgette responded. "He hates the fact that I became a vigilante, and he's too stubborn to accept it. He's too devoted to find someone else."

"Well, I guess I know how terribly I screwed everything up now," Harold said, "Except for with Trent."

"You mean Apocalypse Proclaiming Trent?" Bridgette asked.

"Guys," a person in toxic protection garb, including a gas mask, said, "The poison gas is coming this way! We better run!"

"That's him," Bridgette confirmed.

Harold sniffed the air, and then said, "Uh, guys? I don't think Trent's just being paranoid about this… there's something off-putting about this stench. And not in a rotting meat way _or _a raw sewage way." A cloud of poisonous gas became visible to all.

"Oh, no!" older Cody shouted, "I have to do something!"

"No," Harold said, "I have to do something. I got us into this mess, and I'm going to get us out."


	8. Harold's Rally

Young Harold wandered around town, rallying all of the people he could. Both young and older Cody, along with Bridgette and Trent, followed him. He walked through the slums, where he convinced Tyler and Lindsay to follow him. Tyler and Lindsay each kissed their children in turn, and nine of them were being guarded by the oldest, who appeared to be about twelve. Beth was picked up, rather forcibly, by Harold.

He told Katie and Sadie to stand up and be counted, which they obliged. He then looked down into the cardboard box, and said, "You too, Zeke."

Ezekiel got up and started following them.

"Gwen!" young Cody called out, to the wan woman several paces away. "We have to rally!"

"Can't… walk," she said.

"That's okay," he responded, "I'll carry you!" Young Cody picked Gwen up and carried her. He continued to hold her until they reached their point of rallying.

Harold stopped by in a bar, where he ran into Geoff. He told Geoff that he had to come help, which he was initially unwilling to, until Harold mentioned that he was going to fix the past. Geoff decided it was important then.

"Courtney!" Bridgette said, "You have to come help us!"

"Help you do… what, exactly?" Courtney asked incredulously.

"We need to fix the mistake of the past," Harold mentioned.

"I… I…" Courtney began.

"Come on, Courtney," Harold said, "This isn't you. You wouldn't want to have put Duncan in jail. I _know _this."

"I don't… I don't…" she continued.

"Please," Harold said, "What do you have to lose?"

"Nothing, I guess," she said, "This life couldn't get much worse."

They passed through the better part of town, scraping up Justin, Heather, and Alejandro whilst walking through the red light district. Justin stopped to pick the lock on Owen's cage, freeing him.

"JUSTIN!" Owen squealed, and fell into his arms, "You're my hero."

"More on that later, Owen," Justin responded, "For now, we have bigger problems."

"Sierra!" older Cody shouted, and then he whistled at her. She loyally approached him, and said, "What's… going on?"

"It's not important right now," Harold responded, "We still need to rally myself and LeShawna… but first…" Harold took a detour through the cemetery, where he grabbed Eva's arm, and rallied her as well.

He walked by the abandoned laboratory, where he found his older self sleeping. "Wake up!" he shouted, "Wake up!"

"Huh?" older Harold asked, "What's going on?"

"You're being rallied," young Harold responded, "Do you know where your ex-wife is?"

"The last time I checked, she was at DJ's house…" older Harold responded sheepishly.

"Perfect!" young Harold said, as he dragged his older self into DJ's house, where DJ was still sitting in a fetal position, but now LeShawna was drinking coffee and crying. The rest of the rally followed suit, and then they were all under cover from the poison gas cloud.

Young Harold stood where all the other people could hear him, and then he cleared his throat.

"Attention, future selves and comrades," he began, "This future is a _fluke. _It's not supposed to happen this way. Alejandro and Heather are supposed to be married in Spain. Beth is supposed to have hordes of male fans and a rocking hot body. Bridgette is not supposed to be a vigilante; she's supposed to own a vegan restaurant and a mansion, with her _husband _Geoff.

"Courtney is not supposed to convict Duncan; she is supposed to _acquit _him. DJ shouldn't be afraid to leave his own house. Eva should be more powerful than ever, not like this." Eva sighed when young Harold mentioned her, "Ezekiel should be _employed. _Gwen and Trent should be part of a famous goth rock band, and Gwen should not be a meth addict. Izzy shouldn't be committed, she should have a carnival with Owen; and Justin is supposed to be voted the sexiest man in the universe!

"Katie and Sadie are supposed to be married to a delightfully similar pair of gentlemen; Tyler and Lindsay are supposed to be wealthy and successful; Sierra is supposed to be making do with a poor man's Cody and _not _have dementia," Harold said. He finished with a bang, "I am supposed to discover the strain and cure for mongoose flu, which LeShawna would be happy about, and Cody and Noah are supposed to live together creating enjoyable media for all! That's right, Noah's supposed to _live._"

The entire crowd of people looked doubtful. "But it can't happen that way unless I fix the past. But I can't do it all by myself. I'm just a kid who made a mistake. Now, I'm not the best tactician we could have… he's pushing up daisies right now. And I know there's nothing we can do about that now. But there is something we can do about it if we fix the past."

Katie and Sadie gave each other meaningful looks. Courtney showed utmost concern. Bridgette audibly gulped. "I can't guarantee," young Harold said, "That the future will be perfect, but we can damn well try to make it passable. And this… _this _is not passable."

"What are we going to do?" Tyler asked, "This seems hopeless to me."

"It's not hopeless," young Harold said, "The first rule of time travel is to never change anything in the past for fear that the slightest change could be catastrophic on the future. But it can work in reverse too. If the future is already apocalyptic, it couldn't get much worse! I broke the rule to ruin this future; so I can break the rule to fix it. What we have to do is make it look like a false sighting."

"I can only take a few of you with me," young Harold said, "And it will be hard enough for us to all fit even then. I'm not going to take anyone huge. I've decided that for this mission, I would like to bring Katie, Lindsay, Bridgette, my future self, my Cody, your Cody, and Justin." The six adults, as well as young Cody stood up and waited for instructions.

Katie turned and hugged Sadie, who appeared to be crying. "It's okay," Katie said, "I'm sure we'll be fine."

Lindsay kissed and hugged Tyler. "Be careful, okay?" Tyler asked.

"I will," Lindsay responded.

"First things first," young Harold said, "I need to provide you all with traditional colonial garments, so that nothing goes amiss because of our clothes."

Young Harold handed each of them a garment, and young Cody was incredulous that he had them in his bag the whole time. Each of them put on their outfits.

"Mine's a little small," Justin complained.

"If all goes well," young Harold mentioned, "That won't matter." Turning to older Harold he asked, "Do you still have the time machine?"

"Why can't we use our time machine?" young Cody asked.

Young Harold began to explain, "You see, Cody, because this is an exit pod it has no dock. Therefore, there would be no way for the people from this time period to get home, unless they affected _our _time period, and we don't want any more unnecessary changes. And, not only that, but if they used our time machine to transport themselves here—with the entrance pod in our time period, and the exit pod in theirs—the machine would be in controls only mode permanently."

"Okay, okay," young Cody said, obviously exhausted by the explanation, "I'm sorry I asked."

"Yes," older Harold responded, "We do still have the time machine. It is in the basement of the laboratory where I work."

Older Harold led the party down the stairs, where they found the time machine. "Does the passkey still work?" young Cody asked, pulling the card from his pocket.

"We aren't quite sure," responded older Cody, "None of us have touched this thing in years."

Young Cody swiped the passkey. The computer screen read, **Access Denied: Your Card Is Out of Date.**

"Out of date?" young Cody asked, "Did we plan obsolescence?"

"Oh," older Harold said, "That's just what it says when it can't read your card at all."

"It can't read the card at all; oh, no!" younger Harold said, "And I've already forgotten the pass code!"

"You… have…" young Cody responded. "Well, not to worry, I know it: **HMCATM… **and then a series of numbers, what were they again? Think, think, think! Gah! Stupid Noah wrote down the first part twice and the last part once."

"Hey, don't disrespect the dead!" older Cody scolded.

"Oh, right…" young Cody said and then sighed, "But that doesn't help our predicament any."

"**HMCATM-**zero-eight-one-two-zero-three-zero-two," a sassy voice responded.

"LeShawna!" young Harold said excitedly, "You remembered!"

"Of course I remembered; I wasn't about to let anything terrible happen if I knew about it," LeShawna said.

"Can you repeat the code?" young Cody asked politely. But instead of repeating the code, LeShawna pushed him out of the way and entered the code herself. The machine gave access to her, and then she said, "Go on, sugarplum! Make LeShawna proud."

Both Harolds blushed.

"Wait, don't go yet," a delightful voice said. It was Courtney. She said, "I… have a confession to make. I am… partially responsible for what has happened here. So, in order to make it up to you, I want to make sure nothing terrible happens on your trip… if LeShawna is willing to concede that task for me."

LeShawna looked hesitant, and then said, "Well, alright, but I'm going to be standing by and supervising you to make sure you don't make anything worse."

"That's okay," Courtney responded, "I won't let you down."


	9. Fixing the Past

Young and older Harold and Cody, Bridgette, Lindsay, Katie, and Justin piled into the machine. The Cody pair had to squat to the ground, while Justin had to hug the wall in order to leave room for the women and the pair of Harolds. The machine was not designed to carry eight people, but young Harold had to have a certain number of people with him for his plan to work. Before they left, Harold picked up three buckets of paint: green, brown, and gray, and centered them in the circle. Although the machine was far more crowded than it should have been, young Harold was still able to give an instruction.

"Okay, Cody," he directed his peer, "Set it off of programmable tour."

The machine responded "Setting machine off of programmable tour will take you to an abandoned area. Is this okay?"

Young Cody hesitated, looked at Harold's face hoping for approval, and then pressed **YES.**

"Now set it four hours after we went last time," young Harold commanded, "To pre-national Canada!"

"Yes, sir!" Cody responded obsequiously.

The ride was bumpy, and each Cody held onto a female leg for dear life—young took Bridgette, older took Lindsay. Katie buried her face in Justin's chest in fear. "Hang on everyone," young Harold shouted, "Here we come!"

The time machine was exited in a secluded field, where it was very conspicuous.

"I was worried something like this would happen," young Harold said, "That's why I brought this paint along." He handed one of the buckets to Katie, one to young Cody, and one to older Harold. "Make this machine as inconspicuous as possible. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I want it to be possible to mistake for a grassy knoll from a distance."

"We're on it," Katie said, "For Sadie's sake…"

"Okay, so, the unoccupied Cody, Bridgette, Lindsay, and I will go into the town proper. My glasses would be suspicious, so I'm going to pocket them. Bridgette, you will escort me around so that I don't make any mistakes in motion," young Harold continued to explain his plan.

"And what do I do?" Justin asked, curious as well as eager.

"Your job is the most important of all," young Harold said, "Your job is to stand there and look pretty."

Justin blinked. "I don't follow."

"Maybe you don't remember," young Harold said, "But I do. You're supposed to be so unbelievably _smoking _that even nature bends its will to you. When that happens, we'll know the trip was a success… with a margin of error of five percent."

"Alright," Justin said, "I'll… I'll try."

Katie led her team in painting the time machine green. Young Cody added brown speckles of various sizes to the bottom to synthesize dirt. Older Harold added a few finishing touches by adding a little bit of gray for pebbles.

Young Harold's team was led into town proper, where they huddled. "Now," Harold said, "In order for this to work, we must be none the wiser about what happened in the past few hours. The key to this is isolation. We will ask a person, isolated from the crowd, how they've been. When they respond about seeing two strange individuals, or a mysterious tool, we will tell them that we've seen no such thing. The only one here I'm worried about training is Lindsay, but, who cares? She's a natural."

They broke then, and started spreading throughout the town. Justin stood around, wondering how on earth they expected to use his face as a meter of success.

"Hey," Bridgette said to a woman, "What has happened recently?"

"Oh," the woman replied, "I saw two weird creatures… not quite human, you know? Something too advanced; actually, one looked kind of like your companion."

"Oh, do you not remember McGrady and wife?" Bridgette asked, "We've been living here longer than you have."

"Oh, have you?" the woman asked, "Well, then maybe I dreamt a weird dream about your husband."

"I hear that. I had a dream where yours was an elk the other day," Bridgette responded.

Bridgette and the woman laughed.

Harold was led to a man, whom he asked, "Has anything of note happened in your life?"

"Well, yes," the man said, "I saw two weird people and a tool unknown to man."

"A tool unknown to man," Harold said, laughing, "I wonder how that could have been. Where was it?"

"It was right in the town common," he responded, "Right here."

"Well… I think I would have noticed if something has been amiss in the common. I come here every day around three," Harold said.

"It disappeared into thin air…" the man continued.

"Okay, tools unknown to man are possible I suppose, but disappearing ones? That's just downright nutty!" Harold said, "You must have been dreaming."

"I… suppose you're right. After all, there's no way a disappearing tool could exist. And, considering how similar the guy in my dream looked to you—he had off clothes and eyes, though—it probably was a dream."

"Like, hi?" Lindsay said to a woman who was busily knitting.

"Hello," responded the woman, "Did you see those two weird guys a few hours ago, and their abomination of a tool?"

"No," Lindsay responded, "I don't like know any weird guys."

"Well, we didn't know them either," she responded, "They just appeared out of nowhere."

"Nowhere?" she asked, "That's not possible. Everyone has to come from _somewhere."_

The woman responded, "Oh, you're right! It was, possibly, just a dream."

Older Cody approached a man, who asked, "Hey, were you around during the sighting?"

"What sighting?" older Cody asked.

"The sighting of…" he began, but then he recognized Cody's eyes, but notably not his age. "Forgive me… uh…"

"Anderson?" he responded.

"Yes, forgive me, Anderson… I must have merely dreamt about you as a young man," the man said sheepishly.

They continued to tell every person in the town center, individually, that it was a dream.

"There," young Harold said, "Now they all think that it's a dream." Older Cody put his hand over Harold's mouth.

"We are not in read only mode," he teased.

"Point taken," Harold responded, his voice muffled by the hand.

"What happens next?" Bridgette asked curiously.

"Did you know I had the strangest dream last night?" the woman who was previously talking to Bridgette asked, "McGrady was weird in it."

"Well, I had a dream involving Anderson as a young man," the man who was previously talking to older Cody said.

At that moment, at the top of the hill that Justin was standing, the sun shone brightly. His eyes twinkled, and he smiled giddily. _Every single one _of the colonists turned and stared.

"It's working!" Harold said, "My plan is really working!"

"Come on, let's get going," older Cody said, as he gathered the two ladies. The four of them headed back to the field.

One of the colonists was approaching Justin. "Do it, now! Take off your shirt!" Harold directed. Justin took off his shirt, which stopped the colonist in her tracks.

"Now, come on!" older Cody shouted, "We don't have all day!"

"Oh, right," Justin said, picking up his shirt and following the others. They met up with the team who was painting the time machine, and then Harold ordered them to pile back into the machine. Katie obliged first, then older Harold, and finally young Cody.

"You did it, Harold!" he shouted.

"We don't know that yet," young Harold said. "Brace yourself for disappointment!"

When they were placed back in the future, Courtney was standing by, and she said, "The details are off… in a good way! Look!"

Young Harold and Cody both sprinted out of the basement, where they saw the laboratory was much better kept. They looked out the window, and saw buildings in decent shape, and the sky was normal; neither engulfed in flames nor smoggy.

"We did it!" young Harold shouted excitedly. He turned to his older self, older Cody, Bridgette, Lindsay, Katie, Justin, Courtney, and LeShawna. In the most heartfelt voice he could muster, he said, "I just want to thank you for all your help."

"It was nothing," Justin said, "Really."

"Don't worry about that, hon," LeShawna said, brushing it off.

"But now, Cody and I have to go home. It's the way it's supposed to be," Harold said, "And messing up time is something that should be avoided at all costs."

Harold and Cody headed back for the machine that was currently an exit pod in the street. They set up the return trip.

On the other end Noah and LeShawna were waiting impatiently for Cody and Harold's return. During the time they were gone, Noah had notified LeShawna of the imminent crisis, which caused her to slightly panic. Now she was getting quite antsy; he was too, until he noticed a few things changing, which caused him to smile. "What are you smiling about?" LeShawna asked him.

"Son of a gun," he said, "This is the way it was before."

"Wait... what do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean… Harold and Cody saved the day."

"Oh, I knew Harold had it in him," LeShawna said, smiling, looking slightly love-struck.

"Well," Noah admitted, "It _was _impressive; I'll give him that."

Harold and Cody rode the machine back. On the way, Cody mentioned being happy he didn't need to crouch anymore.


	10. To Better the Present

Harold and Cody exited the pod in their time period. LeShawna immediately ran up to Harold and shouted, "Harold!" She gave him a warm embrace, and a kiss. "You did it, Harold, you did it! You saved the future." Cody smiled.

Overcome with emotion, Noah rushed over to Cody and embraced him as well, and, before he could stop himself, kissed him too. It was small and relatively platonic, but it was a kiss nonetheless. Embarrassed and ashamed, he pulled back, and mumbled, "S-sorry."

"It's fine," was Cody's reply. Noah was awestruck by this reply. "Now, what do you say to you and I going to get a pop?"

"Uh…" Noah said, and although his moderately pigmented skin made it hard to tell, Cody could have sworn he saw a hint of a blush. "Yeah, I guess that would be fine." Harold snickered.

Cody approached him and said, "Hey, in a choice between this and losing him, I would pick this anytime." This justification, however, did not stop Harold from laughing.

"Come on, Harold," LeShawna said, "Cody makes an excellent point. A pop would be delicious right about now. Come on, let's celebrate the averted crisis!"

The four left the time machine, but before then, Noah insisted that he and LeShawna put in security questions should the code fall into the wrong hands again. And, seeing as how listening to him would have prevented the crisis initially, Cody seconded the proposition. Noah's question referred to his second oldest brother's middle name. LeShawna's referred to the day that she and Harold first started dating.

"Gwen!" Cody called out when he saw her sitting alone. She looked up. He ran up to her and gave her a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're not a meth addict in the future anymore!"

"Wait, what?" she asked, "Why would I be a meth addict? I know how bad that stuff is for you."

"Well, it would have something to do with Duncan…" Cody alluded to _not _very subtly.

"Duncan…" Gwen said, as the delinquent passed by, "If you ever try to give me anything bad, I will. End. You." She muttered something about going back to Trent, and stormed off.

Duncan was a bit frightened at this point, and tried to leave.

"Hold on a moment, Jello Biafra," Noah said. "There's still the matter of you _dooming us all."_

"Hey, wait!" Duncan responded, "I never did find out what you meant."

"Let's just say that you now owe a couple of nerds your life," Noah said, very mightily. Despite the fact that he was not one of them, he still felt like he could be snide about such a humiliating fact.

"I can't believe it," Duncan said, and then he started looking for Courtney. He found her, and said, "Can you believe it, Courtney? The nerds are saying I owe them my life."

"You know what, Duncan?" Courtney said, "I do too. That's why I will never let you fall on my watch."

"That's what I like about you," Duncan responded, and then he and Courtney kissed.

"Now, come on, Duncan," Courtney said, "I know that you can change your ways, if only slightly."

Noah, Cody, LeShawna, and Harold headed towards their destination, and passed by Eva.

"Eva," Cody said, kneeling before her, "I am going to go get a pop with Noah." Eva looked annoyed. "Now, you might not understand this now, but… it really is for the best."

"I… don't understand…" Eva responded, looking upset.

"You should trust him," Noah said, smiling, "He saved the future."

Eva looked at Noah's face, and decided, "You know what? I trust you." She looked at Cody and said through gritted teeth, "But if you hurt him, I'll cream you, got that?"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" Cody shouted, while saluting. Eva scratched her chin contemplatively.

Izzy walked by and happened to see Noah and Cody holding hands which made her drop a blueprint into a river nearby. "Ack!" she shouted, when she noticed this, but then she was again, too distracted by the boys. DJ picked up the blueprint and noticed that it was actually a design for how to burn down a building. He quickly crumpled it up and threw it away, mentioning that littering and fire smoke were bad for the environment. Five minutes later, she had completely forgotten about the plan.

"Where's my Izzy?" Owen asked.

"Oh, there you are, Owen!" Izzy responded, and leaped into his arms. "I was thinking about something, but then I saw _Noah and Cody holding hands!"_

"Stuff like that tends to distract," Owen admitted.

Sierra overheard this conversation, and then thought to herself, _Oh! It wasn't personal after all. _This made her disappointed, but not angry. She walked away from the scene with her dignity intact.

"Make way for the heroes!" Harold gloated, as he passed Lindsay and Tyler by.

"Oh!" Lindsay shouted, "Yeah, make way for Tyler!"

Tyler heard this compliment, and grinned. He then tried to make a kick, and failed.

"Ooh!" Lindsay squealed, "That's great, Tyler!"

Bridgette and Geoff were making out. Aware of his previous chain reaction, Cody squeezed Noah's hand tightly, which caused Noah to gasp slightly—up until that moment, he had only been remotely aware that his hand was being held.

"Good luck in the working world, Zeke," Harold said, looking to Ezekiel, and pointing. "All thanks to me."

"I'll remember that, eh!" Ezekiel shouted excitedly.

"And don't you two settle for the first guy who comes your way," Harold mentioned.

Katie and Sadie both giggled. Katie said, "Oh, we _know _that."

"That's right; we both have to wait for Mr. Right," Sadie mentioned.

They both looked over at Justin who was admiring his smile, and asked himself, "Man, do I get handsomer every minute or what?"

"You do!" Katie shouted.

"Yes, you do," Sadie agreed.

"I agree," Beth mentioned. Harold and Cody looked at Beth. "What? Just because I look like this, I'm not allowed to think attractive guys are attractive?"

"Oh, it's not that at all," Cody responded, "We just didn't see you there; that's all."

"But, man," Harold said, "Will people be looking at you in the future!"

Beth's eyes gleamed. She asked, "R-really?"

"All you need is some confidence," Cody answered.

"And the key to confidence is…" Harold began.

Beth interrupted him, saying, "I already know the key to confidence! Being totally hot!"

Harold and Cody looked at each other. Afterwards, Harold, Cody, Noah, and LeShawna walked by Heather and Alejandro. "It's too bad that Heather and Alejandro still get to be married in the future, though," Harold said regretfully. He _thought _they were out of earshot. However, this assumption was false. Heather blushed.

"We get to be married in the future, hmm?" Alejandro asked devilishly.

"Uh…" Heather said, still blushing. "I don't… I don't know what would make you believe them. They're just nerds babbling about nothing."

"Why, Heather," Alejandro said suavely, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't like me…"

"I… I… I don't!" Heather lied. Alejandro picked up on the telling signs of falsehood immediately.

He told her, "You know, in Spain, I have an estate…"

Heather pretended not to be impressed by this statement.

When the four had finally reached their destination, Cody was about to whip out his wallet. Before he could, however, LeShawna slammed a large amount on the counter, ordering a round of drinks.

"LeShawna, you really didn't have to treat _us," _Noah said humbly.

"Yeah, I would've paid!" Cody insisted.

LeShawna took them all in her arms and said, "Please, let me do this. You guys deserve it."

After the four all had their drinks, LeShawna raised her bottle into the air. "I propose a toast to the three most brilliant minds to ever compete on Total Drama; the two who solved a crisis and the one who tried with extreme determination to prevent it while I was unaware. I propose a toast to our future, which is now in the right place, and most of all… to my sugar babe, who would not rest, would not sleep for an instant, until his perceived mistake—which was incidentally the fault of a third party—was fixed."

"I propose a toast to Noah being alive in the future," Cody said. Noah gave him a weird look. "Trust me, you weren't exaggerating when you said Duncan doomed _you."_

Noah raised his bottle in the air and said, "I propose a toast to… Harold and Cody, who went in and fixed the past while I was sitting on my butt like the lazy I am."

"You mean, trying to keep an eye on our security, trying every fix in the machine, and warning us when we weren't in read only mode?" Cody asked, and then he sarcastically remarked, "Yeah, that sounds really lazy to me."

"That was earlier, not simultaneously," Noah corrected.

"But still!" Harold said, "I propose a toast to all our future selves who helped me and Cody fix the past to the point of the passable."

"Well, it's settled then," LeShawna said, "To all that."

"To all that!" the three guys joined in. They toasted their bottles, and then they began to enjoy their afternoon.


	11. Epilogue: Twenty Years Later

_Twenty years later…_

Alejandro and Heather moved into Alejandro's estate in Spain. Although Heather was initially distasteful of Alejandro, she decided that they were a match after all—"a match made in heaven" was possibly too benign of a description for the two of them, but it somehow worked. Alejandro and Heather were both pleasantly surprised at the calm serenity of married life. Even though they both had everything anyone could ask for, they each wished that something could possibly come into their life to spice things up. Once every two years, they would take a trip back to Canada, where Heather would take advantage of the unofficial national Justin rule.

Beth decided to follow the advice given by Cody and become more confident. She did this, of course, by getting laser surgery and liposuction. This made her attractive to the people on the street, but it also put her a little bit behind in her bills. However, once she sold her car, the lovely public transportation staff would always have her back; helping her out whenever they could. Her favorite bus driver, one who reminded her of two of her old crushes, was even willing to help her pay for her utilities until she could get on track again.

Bridgette and Geoff both stayed together the entire time, which made Bridgette excited and, at the age of twenty-four, she decided to open a vegan restaurant with some of her earnings from earlier jobs. The industry boomed, as more and more people started eating vegan, and she won many awards. Geoff was proud to call her his wife, which he gladly bragged about and alluded to at all the fancy mansion parties that he threw because of this. Some people refused to believe that Bridgette was actually Geoff's wife, until they went to his house and saw her for themselves, at which point they congratulated him on his catch.

Courtney became a defense attorney, whose number one client, Duncan, promised to change his ways. Although it did take him quite a while to completely wean himself off of his life of crime, the number of crimes he committed dropped considerably, from ten a year, to five a year, to two a year, to one a year, and finally, only showed up once in a blue moon. Proud of the progress Duncan had made, Courtney kept the vow to never let him take a fall while he was on her watch. Courtney's legal acuity gave Duncan an incentive to keep his side of the bargain.

DJ, after becoming conscious of the amount of litter still prevalent in the world, had made it his life to clean up the parks in Canada, and even traveled into the northern United States every once in a while to clean up their messes too. While there, he was offered the job as a ranger in one of the biggest, most famous national parks in the world. He declined the offer, saying that the welfare of the animals was more important to him than his direct involvement. Five years later, he changed his mind, after a perfect streak of no animals being harmed by his treatment.

Eva, at the age of nineteen, decided to sign up for the army. However, she stormed out when the administration did not allow her to be in any combat roles because of her sex. Instead, she decided to start a gym for women at the age of twenty-seven, that would, unlike its predecessors be a cold, unforgiving, and most importantly, strength building. She figured that, with luck, in ten years, she would be able to change the mind of the administration about women being allowed in combat roles.

Ezekiel, through a slightly padded résumé, and a couple of unreliable references, was able to get a job as the custodian on a floor in an apartment. The landlord told him that as long as he continued to work for him, he was allowed to lease a room for lower rates than the standard customer. To such an offer, Ezekiel responded simply, "That'd be awesome, eh!" With his savings, he was able to keep up with his bills most of the time, and was actually able to purchase a television.

Gwen, deciding that Duncan was not worth the time of day, decided to go back to Trent; only this time, instead of dating, they would just be friends. Gwen and Trent wrote several songs together, until they were located by an aspiring metal singer. She asked if they would be willing to join her band, and they both gleefully agreed. Each of them chose an independent stage name, to show that, despite their old love, they were still completely unattached. Gwen decided to flesh out her first name in the stage, and give herself a pretend surname—more symbolic than anything, whereas Trent went with a music reference.

Izzy and Owen built a carnival, and they were often the main attraction. Izzy and Owen loved the role-play of ringmaster and freak show, and actually found it quite exciting for their relationship as well. More importantly, as the main act of the show, Owen was able to enjoy food provided by a variety of people, and, most importantly, he was one of the ones allowed to enjoy Justin's company. Justin, who frequented the carnival often, was usually first in line to the Giant's shows.

Justin's beauty had won him some awards, and he had even gotten some recognition from the papers that he looked virtually identical to a rumored man to have been sighted in pre-national Canada, who managed to turn an entire town's heads. Justin, having gone through what he had, knew that this was no coincidence—but why should he bother to codify something that everyone already knew anyway? Despite his narcissism's inflation during this time, he was also changed for the better—he was more interested than ever in his old teammates, who, in moderately large numbers, gladly took advantage of his rule of exception.

Katie and Sadie took Harold's advice and did not settle for the first man they saw. Instead, they waited four years until they saw two men coming out of a bar, who were almost obviously Mister Right. There was only one thing they were waiting for—and that was what the two men called each other. Something that suggested boyfriend was out, but they referred to each other as BMFFL's. Katie and Sadie then knew they had found the ones. They all moved into a house together, where they collectively cared for both families, and, ten years later, Sadie had a daughter.

Lindsay's constant praise and encouragement gave Tyler motivation to become better and better, until eventually his dream of becoming a professional athlete had come true. He and Lindsay promised to grow old together, and they kept that promise as best they could in the mansion he and Lindsay could afford. Tyler's only regrets were that it was far too difficult to convince anyone outside of their little family that Lindsay was his real, loving, honest-to-god wife, and not just a babe he married because he was able to.

Sierra, now satisfied that Cody had a _reason _not to like her, decided to settle down in a normal house with a husband who was just like Cody, except in one respect—he actually liked her back. Despite this, she still refused to acknowledge that her husband was the end-all be-all person, and would continually spy on Cody—whom she moved across the street from intentionally—with a pair of binoculars. Her husband knew that she was just humoring him when she said he was her only love; but that was good enough for him. After all, it was better than nothing.

Noah was well inspired enough after this series of events to write a three-hundred page novel, which on its first release sold a million copies. He decided that he would be able to write more books under this same series, and so he did. Due to living under the same roof, Cody was also inspired by Noah's writing to create a video game, which in turn inspired Noah to write a third book. It is said in some circles that each of them acts as a muse for the other. If that is to be believed, then Cody would not ever regret moving in with Noah, and Noah would never regret moving in with Cody. It's unclear whether or not we should believe it, because neither of them has.

Harold diligently worked to find a cure for the strain of mongoose flu. When suddenly a test became positive, he gasped audibly, and practically fainted. He used all of his strength to walk over to the phone.

"LeShawna!" Harold shouted into his phone, "I found it!"

"That's great, hon!" she shouted, "Just wait a few minutes and I'll be right over."

"Do you have another man over?" Harold teased.

"Not unless you count Justin," LeShawna responded.

"No one counts Justin," was the reply.

However, despite all of this, Harold and LeShawna still had enough energy when they met to give a long, delicious, earth-shattering kiss.

"That's for being my sweet little hubby, always working like a dog to make the world a better place." She gave him a fierier kiss afterwards, "That's for what you did twenty years ago."

"Oh, that," Harold said, and blushing, he added sheepishly, "You realize that was partially my fault in the first place."

"Harold," LeShawna said, "I don't care about that. What I care about is that you were a good enough man to fix it."

"Thank you," Harold said, "I love you, LeShawna."

"I love you too, babe," she responded.

Although the first rule of time travel is to never change the past for fear that the slightest change could be catastrophic on the future, this is not the most intriguing of the rules. The most intriguing rule is the sixth: not every event can be easily traced back to its initial cause.


End file.
